Counterstike: GO! 01/10
Nov 11, 2019 14:20:36 GMT
Sunday, Ser Baine Cinderwood 🔥🌼, and 1 more like this
Post by Markas Virnala on Nov 11, 2019 14:20:36 GMT
"Gribblies"
19th Entry in the journal of Markas Virnala
Had a trip into K'ul Goran this week. The talk around town of them being at war with the giants resulted in another despatch of adventurers to help with the defence efforts and this time, I managed to get onto the list of delegates being sent out, along with Traavor, Baine (Now proudly sporting a new set of armour from the Crimson Fist order he's joined), and Faye. I feel like OCF is doing Baine some good. He is thinking about things more now. He was actually the first to question through all this if the ones we were fighting were innocents or not. It didn't seem they were in the end, but it's nice to see he is growing.
With us was two new faces coming with us too, well, new for me;
a friend of Faye's called Bubbles; an eccentric Tiefling with an almost innocent or young kind of personality. She isn't someone I would normally expect to take to the adventuring life but she seems to be doing quite well. She is a magic user, much like some of the other adventurer's I've met who draw their power from some 'higher' being, though I'm not sure which one exactly.
And then there was Sunday, another Tiefling with long hair, blue robes and a breastplate, sporting a huge sword on her back wrapped in bandages. She is very interesting and Baine seems to hold her in high esteem. After seeing her fight, I can see why. From the sound of things, she has been kicking around Kantas for a while now and has gone through a lot of changes in that time too. She came with eLk, a magical, mossy-winged Stag she uses as a mount. The two seem to be able to communicate somehow and he seems far more intelligent than any ordinary stag for sure.
The war front turns out to be quite far away from Za'Suul, so travel by boat was switched out for Teleportation directly to Zot Goran, a large city deep into K'ul Goran. We didn’t get to look around much as we were marched to the edge of the city by the awaiting soldiers assigned to escort us but Zot Goran is a very interesting place…. Really tall buildings arranged along narrow and winding lanes. Seems like an easy place to get lost. And it was oddly really windy, well, odd until we reached the edge of the city. When I first went to Za'Suul, Three-steps told us that it was close to the plane of air. Coming out of Zot Goran must have been even closer because it was seriously windy!
We were ushered onto vehicles they have adapted to their needs that kinda looked like bath tubs crossed with wagons and boats? I tried having a go at piloting one but as soon as I tried to lift it the wind forced it back down so I rode in the larger "wagon" with the others.
The trip was mostly quiet (Aside from the persistent howling winds of course) and in all took us through until the next day before reaching the outer defensive city of Jarvenol, with a stop on the plains for the night where we had the chance to learn a little more about the place and what's been going on. It doesn't really seem clear why the giants are attacking but, none the less, they have started and the people of K'ul Goran are retaliating. Mostly, it sounds like the giants aren't the brightest, using their size and brute strength to fight but they have been repelled with varying success from the soldiers. They seem concerned with some of the more recent attacks though as the giants seem to be adapting, which led to the REALLY interesting thing we learned was about the land itself.
The ground in K'ul Goran seems to thirst for Blood, syphoning it directly into the ground. The soldiers have been using spikes in the ground around the cities as their most reliable form of defence, wounding the feet of the giants as they attacked and then, as their blood ran down to the ground, they were exsanguinated and killed by the land itself before being able to reach the city. Traavor cut his hand and let it a drop of blood hit the floor as a test and, sure enough, as soon as the blood touched the ground, it was just sucked straight up and not a trace was left. The soldiers explained how dangerous this was. Dropping a droplet was one thing but in cases like the giants where the blood from the wounds runs in a continuous stream to the ground, regardless of how much, the ground drained all the blood from their body. We never had to fight anything in this land this time, but I think in the future we'd be wise to avoid a fight here.
Some of the others, having been involved in the fighting already, were talking about some exploding rocks they had seen too, Simple stones with Runes carved on, only they seemed to change size depending on who was holding them? Sunday was extremely curious and decided to take it for the time being but Baine was clearly keen to throw it at someone!
The next day, we reached Jarvenol and were shown to a military camp outside its walls for a briefing on what was required of us. Raxus, the Large Minotaur who in charge confirmed what the soldiers had alluded to about the giants adapting. They had started showing up wearing shoes that protected them from the traps laid outside the cities, while others were now also being seen with shields in their hands and metal plated battering Rams, rather than the normal plain tree trunks they would typically deploy. Not necessarily an odd occurrence normally, but this is normally outside the scope of creative thinking for Ogres and Hill Giants. Our mission was to steal into Giant Territory and take out a sort of factory where these things were being crafted. Scouts had already been and scoped it out so could give us some direction but otherwise, we would be bolstered in ranks by three members of the Errant Guard, a specialist group of Soldiers above the normal ranks of soldiers;
It didn’t take us long to set off, Raxus being keen to have the place destroyed before they can make anything else that will give the giants an edge in the war. We headed south from Jarvenol towards a large mountain range, further away from the plane of air. As we went, the winds slowly started to dwindle back down to what would normally be considered a windy day for most of us, and continued to slow until finally we reached we was the edge of K'ul Goran and the wind stopped. It was a welcome break for most of us, the Errant Guard were visibly uncomfortable with the change, shuddering with the change. I hadn't considered how weird it would be for them but living in constant high winds, but I guess it would be as odd as it was for us when we first arrived.
The ground began to rise into foothills and we eventually joined onto a rough pathway leading through the mountains, climbing steadily higher as we travelled. The further along into Giant Territory we went, we could hear more and more activity echoing through the valleys around us, Giants on the move and making whatever war preparations they had been assigned. Most seemed to be a bit lost and almost wandering aimlessly at times, lending to the oddity of their recent adaptations. The occasional group of ogres or hill giants could be seen now and then moving below us and we were making good time getting through without trouble, probably what made us a bit lax in our approach. eLk had apparently been the first to see a group of around 10 Ogres below us, pointing and beginning to head towards us.
Seeing it was too late to hide now, we decided to face them. Sunday unleashing some spell I've never seen before, causing huge shards of us to erupt beneath a few of the Ogres, piercing their legs and sending them sprawling in a mess. A few of the Ogres, seeing their friends impaled in an icy, bloody mess, turned and ran, leaving those that remained to charge up the incline towards us. Chloris and I took up position at the edge of the path to provide cover while the rest began to charge down to take them head on. Not wanting to let up on the Ogres at the base of the hill, Chlor raised her staff in front of her like a crossbow, aiming down its length at the Ogres stuck in the ice. Not even a second later, the staff lit up as runes started to glow and float around it, then, she casually pressed one of the Runes causing a Fireball to erupt from the end, hurtling down the hill where it engulfed the sprawled and bloody ogres, pierced with Ice and now burning alive as well.
Zeph and Torv took the lead on the attack, rushing down to meet them, Torv moving quicker than Zeph but stopping short of actually reaching them. Zeph actually managing to close the gap, buried his spear deep into ogre, providing an opening for Torv to throw his boomerangs, burying it deep in one Ogre's neck. As it reeled back in pain from that quick assault, a single Bolt fired from Traav, somewhere behind us thudded heavily in its neck and as quick as that, the ogre fell to the floor, dead.
I managed to catch a glimpse of Faye slapping Baine on the back as they both vanished and reappeared halfway down the hill to the approaching Ogres, heading off to the one on the right even as the one in the one in the middle was being picked apart by the errant Guard. Meanwhile, from up on the ledge, Chlor, Bubbles and me each picked a target and provided covering fire, Bubbles sending out 2x sprawling masses of black and purple snakes that slammed into the Ogre Baine and Faye were rushing, in time for the 2x to unleash a flurry of attacks, Baine actually using the massive hammers to break it's knee and bring it down to his level.
With Baine and Faye focusing on the right Ogre, I turned my attention to the last approaching ogre, drawing 2x arrows on my bow, pausing to focus for half a second before letting them loose, both thudding heavily into him. As he reeled back from the force of those, Sunday, like a blur atop eLk, tore down the hill with a Lance at the ready, ramming into it at full speed, ripping out its neck and sending to the floor with a ground shaking thud.
With only one bloodied ogre remaining, I drew another arrow and waited for an opening that never came. Surrounded by Faye, Baine and now Torv and Zeph with their Ogre felled so quickly, The ogre made a feeble attempt at swinging for Baine but before any real effort could go into it, Chlor had already taken aim and pressed another rune on her staff, firing off a much smaller bolt of fire that slammed into it, sending it sprawling backwards.
As the sound of the blast echoed off the valley around, the valley once again became quiet, save for the frantic and distant grumbling of the ogres that got away, those quick enough to run heading into the distance, the remainder crawling, a bloody and burned mess behind them.
We assembled back on the ridge and set back out, a little quieter than before. A few hours of walking led us to a well-worn track in the road, leading to what Torv confirmed was the workshop we were sent to destroy: A mountain with a levelled plateau running around it, lined with huge sculptures of Giants, captured in the process of crafting, some depicted hammering weapons, others depicted as mining the stone from the very mountain itself. The valley was quiet as we made our way, with no sign of any other activity in the area, until we reached the plateau where found a large entrance with the sounds of work echoing out.
We decided to rest here for a little while before heading inside, not wanting to over push ourselves. Bubbles elected to send her familiar, Viceroy, into scope the place out. It was a tense moment until suddenly, in a bit of a panic, Bubbles summoned them back, barely alive. Bubbles was raving about Gribblies attacking viceroy but we still weren't sure what we were dealing with, so Traav and Torv went in next to see what they could find. Down a huge corridor lined with more statues of giants and off down a left turn, they spotted a collection of creatures, scrambling around in the dark eating lumps of old metal, blocking the way to a large door where the sound of hammers and talking can be heard.
With some planning and little more scouting thanks to Bubbles, we finally decided to head in. Faye, Traav and myself taking the lead, devoid of any metallic weapons (I'm glad Milo managed to make me a new spear now instead of repurposing my old staff!), with the others trailing behind. The plan was to work past the Gribblies, sneak into the and get the jump on the giants in there, break up their operation then get out. It was a decent plan that unfortunately fell almost immediately apart.
While sneaking forward, I accidentally kicked a stone, drawing the attention of all the Gribblies…. There was a tense moment as we all stopped to see what they would do and, seeing only me, they all rushed and immediately swarmed me! I was quickly surrounded, almost a dozen of those creatures biting at me from every angle. It was chaos. I'd shove one of them off, side stepping a second only to be caught by another while Cracking the skull of another two with my quarterstaff. Then, from nowhere, a brilliant bright light and searing Pain all over me. Sunday had decided to intervene and ignite all of the creatures at once, unfortunately catching me in centre at the same time. The creatures immediately began to thrash and shriek as they burned. Still trapped and feeling my skin burn, I carried on fighting them off, trying to make an opening to get out of the light, the smell of burning flesh everywhere… I could hear Baine calling out to see if I was ok before a loud Crash drowned out his voice and as quickly as it came, the light vanished. I stood stunned for a second as I adjusted to the dark and cool air again, the Gribblies dropping around me as they succumbed to the beating and burning they had taken, at few at the edges of the group around me with large cuts and a boomerang sticking out of them where the others had tried to get me out. And next thing we could hear was Baine…
The crash had been two massive stone doors that had slid out of the walls behind us, slamming into each other and sealing off the way out. The only problem was, Sunday and Bubbles were still back there. Baine, screaming in panic and rage, had already rushed back and was struggling for purchase on the doors trying to get back to Sunday and, from beyond the wall, we could were stating to hear a succession of crashes, stone hitting stone and the muffled scream and grunts of Bubbles and Sunday. It felt like an age as Baine scrambled at the door, the noise hammering on beyond the wall, all of us waiting for an opening to get through help our missing teammates but finally, he found purchase and with some primal strength forced the walls apart, creating just enough opening for us to see…
Darkness
The crashing, now not muffled by the door was clearly something heavy being slammed around and through it we could hear Sunday fighting something in the dark, but no indication of what had happened to Bubbles. Without waiting Baine rushed in, followed quickly by me. We could see nothing but there was a lot of movement around. It was difficult to pin point what on Earth was happening. There was a crash nearby as something big and very heavy slammed into the floor near us, shaking the ground and spraying us in dust. And then, finally, the darkness was dropped.
Bubbles was, thankfully, fine. She was still further back in the cave and was unharmed, though clearly in a bit of a panic. She had created the darkness and, being the only one of us who can actually see in that, saw us come through and dropped it so we could see.
As the light returned, we could see four stone giants that had been disguised as the statues had stepped forward and closed the doors, springing their trap. Some were starting to look a little rough with deep wounds dropping blood all over the floor, amid the small craters they had created with their massive clubs, the crashing we had been hearing. And then we saw Sunday…
Standing in the middle of all four of the giants, fending off a brutal assault, she looked almost feral, like a cornered animal. Covered in blood as it streamed down her from the deep wounds covering her body, bone showing in some of the worse hits she had taken. Long bone-like claws had sprouted from her Hands and were dripping the giants blood onto the already slick floor. Battered, bruised and bloodied, Sunday was a mess. All four of the giants were solely focused on her and even as we stepped in, they paid no one else any attention, seemingly obsessed with taking her out.
All of us, collectively jumped to action. Zeph and Faye rushed through to join the Fray with Baine and me, each splitting off and attacking different Giants, none of which seemed too bothered by our presence, while Traav, Chlor, Torv and Bubbles kept their distance providing cover and attacking from a distance. Sunday meanwhile finally unsheathes the huge sword on her back and buries it deep into one of the giants, a sickening purple pulsing kind of energy radiating out from it… It wasn't until later Baine told me it was actually a cursed sword Ghesh had somehow gotten hold of and Sunday seemed bent on getting it out of harm's way. The beating she was taking had apparently been enough to tip the scales on her hold of it for now though. Amid the assault we were putting on, the giants all collectively took swings at Sunday. Managing to brush off one swing with little effort before side stepping the next 2, she was caught in the back by the last , sending her to the floor.
Faye managed to get her up briefly with some magic, in time for Sunday to vanish in the wake of another swing of a giant club, appearing on a small ledge next to a lever, the one the giants used to trap her. With her own healing magic course through herself, Sunday instructed us all to get back through to safety so she could close the door. Trusting in her everyone pulled back through the door aside for Baine and me. Baine seemed hell bent on protecting Sunday and I wasn't about to leave him alone to do that. I slashed at one of the giants in front of me as I made for the doorway, stopping just short to meet Baine, who in the mean-time managed to knock the legs out from under one of the giants, slowing it down but not stopping it on its warpath to Sunday.
From here, we could see two of the giants had finally fallen and lay in bloodied heaps, the two still standing had surrounded Sunday and had begun taking swings at her again. The one closer to us managed one last feeble hit on the trapped Sunday before finally falling to the ground dead, thanks to Faye's magic. The last giant however managed to take a heavy swing at Sunday, hitting her full force and slamming her into the wall behind her before she dropped to the floor again, even as another flurry of attacks pass by Baine and me into the back of the giant from our team mates.
Then there was a flash…. Something in the air behind the giants… something that felt dark and twisted and almost didn’t feel real but still somehow etched into my mind. A symbol of some sort, a giant skull on a purple and black starburst… Before we could move to help or even question what we had seen, Sunday, almost as soon as she hit the floor, began to rise up amid a spectral form of eLk before lunging through the air, burying her claws deep into the giants neck, driving it back with the force and down into the floor where it finally stopped moving.
Sunday was looking terrible. She looked like she had died numerous times and somehow crawled her way back. The rest of us, aside from a few cuts and burns on myself, remained unharmed if not a little disturbed by the encounter. We were all pretty keen to work out why they were so driven to attack Sunday but she suggested we deal with the forge first. It was only then we realised the hammering and chatter inside had stopped from beyond the door. Sneaking in, we found a large circular room with tools and equipment scattered around, with several doors leading off, behind which we could hear the muffled snores of the forge workers. Somehow they had not heard the noise outside and by the time it was over had already retired for the night. We searched for valuables quickly before deciding to get ourselves back out of Giant territory.
We passed back out the door, Baine pausing long enough to lob the exploding rock back into the room as we bolted back down the corridors and out onto the plateau. The explosion shook the ground beneath us and we could hear bellowing from behind us, the workers now thoroughly awake but we didn’t stop. Heading out into the moonlight and down the track we ran hearts beating hard in our chests. Baine, coming from the back of the group, swept up Sunday before she could fall behind. It felt like hours of running, back up the winding path along the ridges of the mountain passes, the valley's below devoid of activity now but on we ran, not wanting anything chasing us to catch up. As the mountains receded into foothills, then to flat plains, it was only as the wind started to pick up again we finally stopped running, finally feeling safer on the edge of K'ul Goran's territory.
Sunday, only looking marginally better gave us all an explanation of what had been going on. She really has made a lot of enemies since coming to Kantas. She told us the story of Cyric, a God of Murder who had been watching the adventurers who had killed a Demigod (apparently were Varis got his "God Slayer" nickname) and given them a symbol of his blessing. Sunday had apparently decided at some point to forego this blessing and it was he was evidently not happy about being denied, sending the giants to attack Sunday today as a result. As she spoke, I couldn't help but remember Sunday's reaction at the Amaranthine games as well…. Another likely cause for trouble in the future for her.
We are still in camp now and continuing on to Jarvenol in the morning. Hopefully this should slow things down in the war but I don't think it will go anyway towards ending it anytime soon. Sunday came and spoke to me for a while before heading off to speak to the others, wanting to apologise for the burning I took. She said it was only to kill the creatures off quickly and would not have left me wounded after if she could help it but I told her not to worry. If nothing else, it has made me think I really need to practice getting out of the way quicker. I asked if we could train together soon and she seemed happy to. She might still have enemies out there, but she has some new friends now too I guess.
Hoop was fascinated by the statues and the story about the giants but wasn't too happy about being rocked around so much in my pack. I will need to go pay Milo a visit soon and see about getting something a little more secure for them for the future.
19th Entry in the journal of Markas Virnala
Had a trip into K'ul Goran this week. The talk around town of them being at war with the giants resulted in another despatch of adventurers to help with the defence efforts and this time, I managed to get onto the list of delegates being sent out, along with Traavor, Baine (Now proudly sporting a new set of armour from the Crimson Fist order he's joined), and Faye. I feel like OCF is doing Baine some good. He is thinking about things more now. He was actually the first to question through all this if the ones we were fighting were innocents or not. It didn't seem they were in the end, but it's nice to see he is growing.
With us was two new faces coming with us too, well, new for me;
a friend of Faye's called Bubbles; an eccentric Tiefling with an almost innocent or young kind of personality. She isn't someone I would normally expect to take to the adventuring life but she seems to be doing quite well. She is a magic user, much like some of the other adventurer's I've met who draw their power from some 'higher' being, though I'm not sure which one exactly.
And then there was Sunday, another Tiefling with long hair, blue robes and a breastplate, sporting a huge sword on her back wrapped in bandages. She is very interesting and Baine seems to hold her in high esteem. After seeing her fight, I can see why. From the sound of things, she has been kicking around Kantas for a while now and has gone through a lot of changes in that time too. She came with eLk, a magical, mossy-winged Stag she uses as a mount. The two seem to be able to communicate somehow and he seems far more intelligent than any ordinary stag for sure.
The war front turns out to be quite far away from Za'Suul, so travel by boat was switched out for Teleportation directly to Zot Goran, a large city deep into K'ul Goran. We didn’t get to look around much as we were marched to the edge of the city by the awaiting soldiers assigned to escort us but Zot Goran is a very interesting place…. Really tall buildings arranged along narrow and winding lanes. Seems like an easy place to get lost. And it was oddly really windy, well, odd until we reached the edge of the city. When I first went to Za'Suul, Three-steps told us that it was close to the plane of air. Coming out of Zot Goran must have been even closer because it was seriously windy!
We were ushered onto vehicles they have adapted to their needs that kinda looked like bath tubs crossed with wagons and boats? I tried having a go at piloting one but as soon as I tried to lift it the wind forced it back down so I rode in the larger "wagon" with the others.
The trip was mostly quiet (Aside from the persistent howling winds of course) and in all took us through until the next day before reaching the outer defensive city of Jarvenol, with a stop on the plains for the night where we had the chance to learn a little more about the place and what's been going on. It doesn't really seem clear why the giants are attacking but, none the less, they have started and the people of K'ul Goran are retaliating. Mostly, it sounds like the giants aren't the brightest, using their size and brute strength to fight but they have been repelled with varying success from the soldiers. They seem concerned with some of the more recent attacks though as the giants seem to be adapting, which led to the REALLY interesting thing we learned was about the land itself.
The ground in K'ul Goran seems to thirst for Blood, syphoning it directly into the ground. The soldiers have been using spikes in the ground around the cities as their most reliable form of defence, wounding the feet of the giants as they attacked and then, as their blood ran down to the ground, they were exsanguinated and killed by the land itself before being able to reach the city. Traavor cut his hand and let it a drop of blood hit the floor as a test and, sure enough, as soon as the blood touched the ground, it was just sucked straight up and not a trace was left. The soldiers explained how dangerous this was. Dropping a droplet was one thing but in cases like the giants where the blood from the wounds runs in a continuous stream to the ground, regardless of how much, the ground drained all the blood from their body. We never had to fight anything in this land this time, but I think in the future we'd be wise to avoid a fight here.
Some of the others, having been involved in the fighting already, were talking about some exploding rocks they had seen too, Simple stones with Runes carved on, only they seemed to change size depending on who was holding them? Sunday was extremely curious and decided to take it for the time being but Baine was clearly keen to throw it at someone!
The next day, we reached Jarvenol and were shown to a military camp outside its walls for a briefing on what was required of us. Raxus, the Large Minotaur who in charge confirmed what the soldiers had alluded to about the giants adapting. They had started showing up wearing shoes that protected them from the traps laid outside the cities, while others were now also being seen with shields in their hands and metal plated battering Rams, rather than the normal plain tree trunks they would typically deploy. Not necessarily an odd occurrence normally, but this is normally outside the scope of creative thinking for Ogres and Hill Giants. Our mission was to steal into Giant Territory and take out a sort of factory where these things were being crafted. Scouts had already been and scoped it out so could give us some direction but otherwise, we would be bolstered in ranks by three members of the Errant Guard, a specialist group of Soldiers above the normal ranks of soldiers;
- Torven, an Aerotaur wearing tight leather armour with multiple Boomerangs hanging from his sides. He was part of the scout party that originally found this factory.
- Zeph, An Air Genasi fighter. He is a single minded sort of fighter, keen to get started and break whatever is in his way. Like the Air Genasi I saw in Za'Suul, his hair seemed to always be gently blowing in the wind, even inside the tent where we were sheltered from the battering winds outside.
- Chloris Skysplitter, a smaller Minotaur than most I've seen, but still fairly stocky in build. She was clearly a mage and sported an odd looking staff with runes carved all over it.
It didn’t take us long to set off, Raxus being keen to have the place destroyed before they can make anything else that will give the giants an edge in the war. We headed south from Jarvenol towards a large mountain range, further away from the plane of air. As we went, the winds slowly started to dwindle back down to what would normally be considered a windy day for most of us, and continued to slow until finally we reached we was the edge of K'ul Goran and the wind stopped. It was a welcome break for most of us, the Errant Guard were visibly uncomfortable with the change, shuddering with the change. I hadn't considered how weird it would be for them but living in constant high winds, but I guess it would be as odd as it was for us when we first arrived.
The ground began to rise into foothills and we eventually joined onto a rough pathway leading through the mountains, climbing steadily higher as we travelled. The further along into Giant Territory we went, we could hear more and more activity echoing through the valleys around us, Giants on the move and making whatever war preparations they had been assigned. Most seemed to be a bit lost and almost wandering aimlessly at times, lending to the oddity of their recent adaptations. The occasional group of ogres or hill giants could be seen now and then moving below us and we were making good time getting through without trouble, probably what made us a bit lax in our approach. eLk had apparently been the first to see a group of around 10 Ogres below us, pointing and beginning to head towards us.
Seeing it was too late to hide now, we decided to face them. Sunday unleashing some spell I've never seen before, causing huge shards of us to erupt beneath a few of the Ogres, piercing their legs and sending them sprawling in a mess. A few of the Ogres, seeing their friends impaled in an icy, bloody mess, turned and ran, leaving those that remained to charge up the incline towards us. Chloris and I took up position at the edge of the path to provide cover while the rest began to charge down to take them head on. Not wanting to let up on the Ogres at the base of the hill, Chlor raised her staff in front of her like a crossbow, aiming down its length at the Ogres stuck in the ice. Not even a second later, the staff lit up as runes started to glow and float around it, then, she casually pressed one of the Runes causing a Fireball to erupt from the end, hurtling down the hill where it engulfed the sprawled and bloody ogres, pierced with Ice and now burning alive as well.
Zeph and Torv took the lead on the attack, rushing down to meet them, Torv moving quicker than Zeph but stopping short of actually reaching them. Zeph actually managing to close the gap, buried his spear deep into ogre, providing an opening for Torv to throw his boomerangs, burying it deep in one Ogre's neck. As it reeled back in pain from that quick assault, a single Bolt fired from Traav, somewhere behind us thudded heavily in its neck and as quick as that, the ogre fell to the floor, dead.
I managed to catch a glimpse of Faye slapping Baine on the back as they both vanished and reappeared halfway down the hill to the approaching Ogres, heading off to the one on the right even as the one in the one in the middle was being picked apart by the errant Guard. Meanwhile, from up on the ledge, Chlor, Bubbles and me each picked a target and provided covering fire, Bubbles sending out 2x sprawling masses of black and purple snakes that slammed into the Ogre Baine and Faye were rushing, in time for the 2x to unleash a flurry of attacks, Baine actually using the massive hammers to break it's knee and bring it down to his level.
With Baine and Faye focusing on the right Ogre, I turned my attention to the last approaching ogre, drawing 2x arrows on my bow, pausing to focus for half a second before letting them loose, both thudding heavily into him. As he reeled back from the force of those, Sunday, like a blur atop eLk, tore down the hill with a Lance at the ready, ramming into it at full speed, ripping out its neck and sending to the floor with a ground shaking thud.
With only one bloodied ogre remaining, I drew another arrow and waited for an opening that never came. Surrounded by Faye, Baine and now Torv and Zeph with their Ogre felled so quickly, The ogre made a feeble attempt at swinging for Baine but before any real effort could go into it, Chlor had already taken aim and pressed another rune on her staff, firing off a much smaller bolt of fire that slammed into it, sending it sprawling backwards.
As the sound of the blast echoed off the valley around, the valley once again became quiet, save for the frantic and distant grumbling of the ogres that got away, those quick enough to run heading into the distance, the remainder crawling, a bloody and burned mess behind them.
We assembled back on the ridge and set back out, a little quieter than before. A few hours of walking led us to a well-worn track in the road, leading to what Torv confirmed was the workshop we were sent to destroy: A mountain with a levelled plateau running around it, lined with huge sculptures of Giants, captured in the process of crafting, some depicted hammering weapons, others depicted as mining the stone from the very mountain itself. The valley was quiet as we made our way, with no sign of any other activity in the area, until we reached the plateau where found a large entrance with the sounds of work echoing out.
We decided to rest here for a little while before heading inside, not wanting to over push ourselves. Bubbles elected to send her familiar, Viceroy, into scope the place out. It was a tense moment until suddenly, in a bit of a panic, Bubbles summoned them back, barely alive. Bubbles was raving about Gribblies attacking viceroy but we still weren't sure what we were dealing with, so Traav and Torv went in next to see what they could find. Down a huge corridor lined with more statues of giants and off down a left turn, they spotted a collection of creatures, scrambling around in the dark eating lumps of old metal, blocking the way to a large door where the sound of hammers and talking can be heard.
With some planning and little more scouting thanks to Bubbles, we finally decided to head in. Faye, Traav and myself taking the lead, devoid of any metallic weapons (I'm glad Milo managed to make me a new spear now instead of repurposing my old staff!), with the others trailing behind. The plan was to work past the Gribblies, sneak into the and get the jump on the giants in there, break up their operation then get out. It was a decent plan that unfortunately fell almost immediately apart.
While sneaking forward, I accidentally kicked a stone, drawing the attention of all the Gribblies…. There was a tense moment as we all stopped to see what they would do and, seeing only me, they all rushed and immediately swarmed me! I was quickly surrounded, almost a dozen of those creatures biting at me from every angle. It was chaos. I'd shove one of them off, side stepping a second only to be caught by another while Cracking the skull of another two with my quarterstaff. Then, from nowhere, a brilliant bright light and searing Pain all over me. Sunday had decided to intervene and ignite all of the creatures at once, unfortunately catching me in centre at the same time. The creatures immediately began to thrash and shriek as they burned. Still trapped and feeling my skin burn, I carried on fighting them off, trying to make an opening to get out of the light, the smell of burning flesh everywhere… I could hear Baine calling out to see if I was ok before a loud Crash drowned out his voice and as quickly as it came, the light vanished. I stood stunned for a second as I adjusted to the dark and cool air again, the Gribblies dropping around me as they succumbed to the beating and burning they had taken, at few at the edges of the group around me with large cuts and a boomerang sticking out of them where the others had tried to get me out. And next thing we could hear was Baine…
The crash had been two massive stone doors that had slid out of the walls behind us, slamming into each other and sealing off the way out. The only problem was, Sunday and Bubbles were still back there. Baine, screaming in panic and rage, had already rushed back and was struggling for purchase on the doors trying to get back to Sunday and, from beyond the wall, we could were stating to hear a succession of crashes, stone hitting stone and the muffled scream and grunts of Bubbles and Sunday. It felt like an age as Baine scrambled at the door, the noise hammering on beyond the wall, all of us waiting for an opening to get through help our missing teammates but finally, he found purchase and with some primal strength forced the walls apart, creating just enough opening for us to see…
Darkness
The crashing, now not muffled by the door was clearly something heavy being slammed around and through it we could hear Sunday fighting something in the dark, but no indication of what had happened to Bubbles. Without waiting Baine rushed in, followed quickly by me. We could see nothing but there was a lot of movement around. It was difficult to pin point what on Earth was happening. There was a crash nearby as something big and very heavy slammed into the floor near us, shaking the ground and spraying us in dust. And then, finally, the darkness was dropped.
Bubbles was, thankfully, fine. She was still further back in the cave and was unharmed, though clearly in a bit of a panic. She had created the darkness and, being the only one of us who can actually see in that, saw us come through and dropped it so we could see.
As the light returned, we could see four stone giants that had been disguised as the statues had stepped forward and closed the doors, springing their trap. Some were starting to look a little rough with deep wounds dropping blood all over the floor, amid the small craters they had created with their massive clubs, the crashing we had been hearing. And then we saw Sunday…
Standing in the middle of all four of the giants, fending off a brutal assault, she looked almost feral, like a cornered animal. Covered in blood as it streamed down her from the deep wounds covering her body, bone showing in some of the worse hits she had taken. Long bone-like claws had sprouted from her Hands and were dripping the giants blood onto the already slick floor. Battered, bruised and bloodied, Sunday was a mess. All four of the giants were solely focused on her and even as we stepped in, they paid no one else any attention, seemingly obsessed with taking her out.
All of us, collectively jumped to action. Zeph and Faye rushed through to join the Fray with Baine and me, each splitting off and attacking different Giants, none of which seemed too bothered by our presence, while Traav, Chlor, Torv and Bubbles kept their distance providing cover and attacking from a distance. Sunday meanwhile finally unsheathes the huge sword on her back and buries it deep into one of the giants, a sickening purple pulsing kind of energy radiating out from it… It wasn't until later Baine told me it was actually a cursed sword Ghesh had somehow gotten hold of and Sunday seemed bent on getting it out of harm's way. The beating she was taking had apparently been enough to tip the scales on her hold of it for now though. Amid the assault we were putting on, the giants all collectively took swings at Sunday. Managing to brush off one swing with little effort before side stepping the next 2, she was caught in the back by the last , sending her to the floor.
Faye managed to get her up briefly with some magic, in time for Sunday to vanish in the wake of another swing of a giant club, appearing on a small ledge next to a lever, the one the giants used to trap her. With her own healing magic course through herself, Sunday instructed us all to get back through to safety so she could close the door. Trusting in her everyone pulled back through the door aside for Baine and me. Baine seemed hell bent on protecting Sunday and I wasn't about to leave him alone to do that. I slashed at one of the giants in front of me as I made for the doorway, stopping just short to meet Baine, who in the mean-time managed to knock the legs out from under one of the giants, slowing it down but not stopping it on its warpath to Sunday.
From here, we could see two of the giants had finally fallen and lay in bloodied heaps, the two still standing had surrounded Sunday and had begun taking swings at her again. The one closer to us managed one last feeble hit on the trapped Sunday before finally falling to the ground dead, thanks to Faye's magic. The last giant however managed to take a heavy swing at Sunday, hitting her full force and slamming her into the wall behind her before she dropped to the floor again, even as another flurry of attacks pass by Baine and me into the back of the giant from our team mates.
Then there was a flash…. Something in the air behind the giants… something that felt dark and twisted and almost didn’t feel real but still somehow etched into my mind. A symbol of some sort, a giant skull on a purple and black starburst… Before we could move to help or even question what we had seen, Sunday, almost as soon as she hit the floor, began to rise up amid a spectral form of eLk before lunging through the air, burying her claws deep into the giants neck, driving it back with the force and down into the floor where it finally stopped moving.
Sunday was looking terrible. She looked like she had died numerous times and somehow crawled her way back. The rest of us, aside from a few cuts and burns on myself, remained unharmed if not a little disturbed by the encounter. We were all pretty keen to work out why they were so driven to attack Sunday but she suggested we deal with the forge first. It was only then we realised the hammering and chatter inside had stopped from beyond the door. Sneaking in, we found a large circular room with tools and equipment scattered around, with several doors leading off, behind which we could hear the muffled snores of the forge workers. Somehow they had not heard the noise outside and by the time it was over had already retired for the night. We searched for valuables quickly before deciding to get ourselves back out of Giant territory.
We passed back out the door, Baine pausing long enough to lob the exploding rock back into the room as we bolted back down the corridors and out onto the plateau. The explosion shook the ground beneath us and we could hear bellowing from behind us, the workers now thoroughly awake but we didn’t stop. Heading out into the moonlight and down the track we ran hearts beating hard in our chests. Baine, coming from the back of the group, swept up Sunday before she could fall behind. It felt like hours of running, back up the winding path along the ridges of the mountain passes, the valley's below devoid of activity now but on we ran, not wanting anything chasing us to catch up. As the mountains receded into foothills, then to flat plains, it was only as the wind started to pick up again we finally stopped running, finally feeling safer on the edge of K'ul Goran's territory.
Sunday, only looking marginally better gave us all an explanation of what had been going on. She really has made a lot of enemies since coming to Kantas. She told us the story of Cyric, a God of Murder who had been watching the adventurers who had killed a Demigod (apparently were Varis got his "God Slayer" nickname) and given them a symbol of his blessing. Sunday had apparently decided at some point to forego this blessing and it was he was evidently not happy about being denied, sending the giants to attack Sunday today as a result. As she spoke, I couldn't help but remember Sunday's reaction at the Amaranthine games as well…. Another likely cause for trouble in the future for her.
We are still in camp now and continuing on to Jarvenol in the morning. Hopefully this should slow things down in the war but I don't think it will go anyway towards ending it anytime soon. Sunday came and spoke to me for a while before heading off to speak to the others, wanting to apologise for the burning I took. She said it was only to kill the creatures off quickly and would not have left me wounded after if she could help it but I told her not to worry. If nothing else, it has made me think I really need to practice getting out of the way quicker. I asked if we could train together soon and she seemed happy to. She might still have enemies out there, but she has some new friends now too I guess.
Hoop was fascinated by the statues and the story about the giants but wasn't too happy about being rocked around so much in my pack. I will need to go pay Milo a visit soon and see about getting something a little more secure for them for the future.
